What's For Dinner? Week 3

Guilty as charged.

I've totally succumbed to the fresh berries on sale in the grocery store lately, even though they are certainly coming from faraway lands. Seriously. Look at the stickers and labels on the produce these days... Everything is being shipped from Mexico. It feels so wrong... and it tastes just okaaay. Pretty bland, actually. But Will is sooo happy to have his favorite fruit (strawberries) back on his lunch plates again. And I swear, he'd eat them if they were mushy and bruised.

On the menu this week:

1) Saturday: Carrot pancakes for breakfast with banana and yogurt. Peas and pasta for lunch with berries and raw veggies.

In the evening, Craig and Will went to an Eagle Scout award ceremony and reception while Sophie and I stayed home and scrounged for dinner. I think she had scrambled eggs with squash, a green vegetable and some cherries. I was craving a good ole' fashioned pb&j with an apple.
2) Sunday: Leftover pancakes for breakfast. Then for lunch the kids had pb&j cut-outs in the shape of hearts and a snowflake along with broccoli. Soph also had more squash and Will some applesauce.

For dinner after our sledding outing, I made scalloped potatoes and ham with green beans, bread & butter. I actually did something I've never done before and left it in the oven while we were sledding since we weren't gone long and it takes over an hour to bake. Normally, neither child really cares for white potatoes. But Sophie LOVED this and ate a good size portion really fast! She ate so much food this night! I thought her little belly would burst. She even ate a pumpkin pie-sicle for dessert after all her dinner! But that's the way it goes for little kids... pig out some days and eat like a bird on others. I always just let her go and trust that she knows better than I do how much her body needs on any particular day. She's growing very well and learning to follow her appetite instead of being forced to eat structured portions.

As usual, Will ate the beans and applesauce, picked out the ham, and ate all but the crust of his bread and butter. For some reason, he only leaves the crust behind when it's just bread and butter. For any other sandwich type, he eats the crust... if, of course, he chooses to eat the sandwich at all. He can be soooo picky. But then he'll compliment the meal (because he loves to give compliments) as though it were the best thing he's ever tasted. "Mommy, this is the best meal I've ever tasted!" He'll say this while eating all the side dishes and never touching whatever the main dish is that actually required some effort. ;)

Recipe for Scalloped Potatoes & Ham (loosely passed on with guess-timate measurements from my friend Julie - thanks Julie!):

6 Tbsp butter

6 Tbsp flour

3 cups milk (maybe a little too much?)

salt & pepper to taste

4 med/large potatoes, sliced

ham, cubed (however much desired)

-Melt butter in saute pan. Add flour and whisk to make paste. Gradually add milk. Bring to boil, then simmer until thickened. S&P to taste. Mix in potatoes & ham. Bake in 2 qt casserole dish, covered, ate 350 for 1 hour (I always feel like it needs a little longer*). Uncover and bake approx 15 mins more until top is golden or if sauce needs to thicken.

*My casserole ended up baking for about an hour and a half, and then a little longer uncovered and it still seemed a tad soupy. The flavor is very good, but maybe a little too much liquid.

3) Monday: For dinner on Monday, it was just the kids and I eating because Craig went to the big car show in Detroit. I kept dinner simple with some roasted vegetables...

...and black bean and cheese quesadillas with fresh fruit. Sophie hasn't been eating the cantaloupe as well lately, so I gave her some rinsed, canned white beans instead for a little extra protein. She loves those.

My plate. Yum.

4) Tuesday: School day lunch for Will - roasted veggies, pitted cherries, yogurt with homemade granola. I threw in a leftover napkin from his first birthday party - haha. :)

In the evening, we had dinner guests and I forgot to take a picture of the meal. I made grandma's chili with grilled cheese sandwiches and green beans. It was nice to visit with Taylor and Amanda that night even though relaxed conversation is difficult when crazy kids are involved. :)

5) Wednesday: One of my all-time-favorite stir-frys - sweet 'n sour pork. Served simply with bread and butter for Craig and I. (I love "one-pot meals".)

Served with fruit and another veggie for the kids just because they don't always eat stir-fry well and I don't plan to make two separate meals. This gives them a few choices and they still have the same main dish to try.

Sweet 'N Sour Pork Stir Fry (from an old Cooking Light cookbook)

1/4 cup pineapple juice (strained from 8 oz can of crushed pineapple)
1 Tbsp cornstarch

2 Tbsp brown sugar

2 Tbsp chopped, fresh cilantro

2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar

1 Tbsp soy sauce

1/4 tsp crushed red pepper

1/2-1# pork loin (I use 1#)

1/4 tsp garlic powder

oil for sauteing

1/4 cup sliced onion*

1 cup sliced red bell peppers*

1/2 cup sliced green bell pepper*

1/2 cup sliced zucchini*

1 8oz can crushed pineapple (or 1 cup finely chopped fresh pineapple)

2 cups hot, brown rice

(*I double all the above listed vegetables. Actually I use two cups each of green and red pepper and the sauce still seems to be plenty. You could double the sauce if you wanted.)

-Combine first 7 ingredients. Cut pork into 1" pieces and sprinkle with garlic. Heat a good drizzle of olive oil in wok or skillet and cook pork over med-high heat until done. Add onion for 1 minute and the peppers and zucchini for 3 more minutes. Stir in pineapple juice mixture and pineapple and cook 1 minute until thickened. Serve over rice.

Side note: for Craig, I left out the zucchini and sauteed it on the side and then just added it in after scooping out his portion. He says if it's cooked with the zucchini in and he then picks the zucchini out, "everything still tastes like zucchini". Whiner.

6) Thursday: School lunch for Will - ham and cheese kabobs with grape tomatoes, raw veggies and cantaloupe.

Leftovers for dinner.

7) Friday: I'm going out of town for the weekend and plan to make chicken noodle soup for Craig and the kids to eat on Friday and Saturday night for dinner. He can handle grilled cheese on his own and there's mini meatloaves in the freezer that the kids can eat for lunch.

What's your favorite cold weather comfort food?

Happy eating!!